Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Peter Klaven is a successful real estate agent who, upon getting engaged to the woman of his dreams, Zooey, discovers to his dismay that he has no male friend close enough to serve as his Best Man. Peter immediately embarks on a series of bizarre and awkward "man-dates" to find such a friend, before meeting Sydney Fife, a fun-loving, charismatic man - just Peter's opposite - with whom he instantly bonds. But the closer the two men get, the more Peter's relationship with Zooey suffers, ultimately forcing him to choose between his fianc and his newfound "bro," in a story that comically explores what's at the core of male friendship and what it truly means to be a friend.

It seems that most of the great comedies coming out lately revolve around the 30something crowd and have toned down the stupidity a bit and turned up the heart. This one is one of the better ones I’ve seen lately but falls a bit shy of the mark compared to some of the more popular Judd Apatow comedies we’ve seen lately with a lot of the same actors. Rudd does a great job as the awkward fianc who realizes he’s not really that popular with the guys. Segel is great as his new found friend and keeps the movie on its toes.

The HD presentation is good, but falls short of the better presentations out there. The image seemed a bit soft at times and lacked the dimensionality I’ve seen from some of the reference tier transfers. Colors still look great though and contrast levels are pretty strong. I didn’t notice any artifacting but the spit and polish seemed a bit short of what we see from the best out there.

The Dolby TrueHD mix is solid with a nice soundstage and decent dynamics when they’re needed. The mix is a bit front heavy but atmosphere is never lacking. The film’s music choices bolster the dynamics and open up the main stage a bit when needed. Dialogue sounds natural throughout with no signs of strain.

Extras are presented largely in HD and include some deleted scenes, promo fluff and some behind the scenes footage. You also get a feature commentary with the director and principle actors.

This is a fun date night flick with some honest laughs. While it didn’t turn out to be quite as funny as I’d heard, we still enjoyed it. Definitely worth a rental.